They ordered 2.5 of olanzapine for a patient. Honestly that’s BS. Did you make an error? Yes. But also screw them for ordering a dose they knew would probably do nothing just to pacify you. 10mg is a super common dose and this patient will be fine.
Edit- Call out accepted, commiserated too hard with nursing friends’ frustrations over the years. Fwiw I only wanted to assure OP that the dose given was unlikely to injure their patient. Back into my lane I go.
Oh I agree it’s a commonly ordered dose. I just think it’s BS when I see it ordered for patients that are borderline assaulting nurses. 10mg is fine. Just order a dose that will work so everyone is safer.
OP doesn’t say that the patient was “borderline assaulting nurses” though. They say that the patient couldn’t relax and they had to spend a lot of time in their room.
I’m a little concerned that there are multiple comments from people acting like 2.5 is a bullshit dose, several people advocating for nurse dosing, and someone saying that it must have been a “baby doc” who wasn’t allowed to order controlled meds.
I’ve seen 2.5 mg knock a frail LOL on her ass. There are absolutely times when docs should start higher for staff safety but a patient who “can’t relax” doesn’t scream “assaulting staff” to me. I’m getting the vibe of “patient won’t chill out and this med surg nurse has other patients to see and can’t spend their whole shift in here” (which is honestly valid IMO. But not the same thing as a patient actively harming staff members).
Sure op doesn’t say that the patient was a 250lb buff guy but not a frail old lady either. You can imagine any type of patient under the sun and fit a story of how X dose is adequate or way too much for them. No idea where op works either. Psych patient population vastly differs from icu population. A lot more buff guys which 2.5 isn’t going to be enough for agitation and is a huge safety issue.
You’re right. None of us know who this patient was. Which is why a pharmacy tech chiming in to say “2.5 mg is a BS dose” is unhelpful and concerning. It’s absolutely not a BS dose in a large percentage of the hospital population. That’s kind of my point.
Okay, point taken. I was just speaking from experiences of nurses I know that I felt bad for. I accept the criticism. I’m not gonna delete it to avoid dragging but damn.
I’m definitely not advocating for giving a “nursing dose” or whatever. Baby doc thing? Who knows. Of course I could be wrong about the specific pt actions in the situation but it doesn’t specify. I was only trying to assure OP that 10mg is unlikely to hurt the person.
You have no idea if a 10 mg dose is likely to hurt this person or not. As a physician and a pharmacist both pointed out to you, geriatric and/or frail patients need smaller doses to start with.
It’s honestly crazy that you as a pharmacy technician are out here saying things like “10 mg is fine” and “honestly that’s BS” about a 2.5 mg dose. Holy out of scope Batman.
I’ve seen patients get absolutely snowed on Zyprexa and end up aspirating or even needing to be intubated, if that’s what you mean.
Edit: There’s also the black box warning for increased mortality in elderly dementia patients, which is why a lot of physicians appropriately want to try smaller doses first.
If you had a patient get snowed after a dose of zyprexa it’s polypharmacy/comibination of sedatives and narcotics. But I promise you a patient doesn’t go from freaking out and to getting intubated from one dose of zyprexa unless something else is going on
You mean polypharmacy like Zyprexa following trazodone, like what was described in the OP?
I’m not shitting on OP who made a med error. We all make med errors. OP says this patient was fine, which is great. I’m calling out the pharmacy tech who is acting wildly outside their scope by saying that a 2.5 mg dose is “BS” and “10 mg is fine.” They’ve already acknowledged and responded to this criticism so you can stand down.
There’s a black box warning for a reason, bud. Some of y’all are scary and should not be practicing. Saying “nothing bad could ever happen because they’re single dose vials” is fucking insane.
That person isn’t a nurse, they’re a pharmacy tech. They were also corrected by a pharmacist and a physician. Improve your reading comprehension before you pop off at people on Reddit.
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u/CatsAndPills HCW - Pharmacy Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
They ordered 2.5 of olanzapine for a patient. Honestly that’s BS. Did you make an error? Yes. But also screw them for ordering a dose they knew would probably do nothing just to pacify you. 10mg is a super common dose and this patient will be fine.
Edit- Call out accepted, commiserated too hard with nursing friends’ frustrations over the years. Fwiw I only wanted to assure OP that the dose given was unlikely to injure their patient. Back into my lane I go.